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Capitalization, Titles

Q. Should I capitalize “the states” when used alone (referring to the United States)?
I’m copyediting a novel in which the author capitalizes “the States”
when used alone. I think it would be lowercased.

A. Actually, “the States” is capped when it means the United States. It’s
only when referring to individual states collectively that you should lowercase: “Each of the states
elects two senators,” as opposed to “I’m going back to the
States.”

A. Write “Aloha State.” It’s essentially a proper name because
it is a nickname for the proper entity Hawaii (nicknames for people are capitalized). And according to paragraph 8.47, popular
names for places and epithets are usually capitalized. See that paragraph for examples.

Personal, national, or geographical names, and words derived from such names, are often lowercased when used with a nonliteral meaning. For example, the cheese known as “gruyère” takes
its name from a district in Switzerland but is not necessarily from there; “swiss cheese”
(lowercase s) is a cheese that resembles Swiss emmentaler (which derives its name from the Emme River valley).

Among the examples included at 8.60 is “scotch whisky.” But in your example, you
are right to capitalize “Scotch” in “Scotch whisky”
because you are opposing “Scotch” to “Irish.”

Q. I am writing a text and need help with one thing. I checked your Q&A and didn’t see anything on this
so I’ll ask here. Do government offices and bureaus need to be capitalized? For example, the Wireless
Bureau of the FCC, or can it be listed in a sentence as the wireless bureau of the FCC? Thanks!

A. According to the examples given in CMOS 8.62, official names of administrative bodies are capitalized, whereas just part of the name is not. For example:

The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau today set guidelines for broadcast frequencies at the
2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. The bureau plans to publish these guidelines within the next seven days.

Note that subsequent mentions of “the bureau” are lowercased. You might also
do this:

The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB) today set guidelines for broadcast frequencies at
the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. The WTB plans to publish these guidelines within the next seven days.

Note also that the official name is the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. If you were to refer simply to the “wireless bureau of the FCC,” it would
have to be lowercase, as when you say only “the bureau,” because you are not giving
the official title of the organization.

Q. When referring to the US Army Corps of Engineers, in saying “the Corps of Engineers”
and “the Corps,” how should the shortened forms be capitalized? Should “the
Corps of Engineers” be in initial caps and “the corps” be
in lowercase?

A.The Chicago Manual of Style includes the following examples among the forty or so listed at paragraph 8.111:

Army Corps of Engineers; the corps

United States (or US) Army; the army

United States Coast Guard; the Coast Guard or the coast guard

United States Marine Corps; the Marine Corps or the marine corps; the US Marines; a marine

United States Navy; the navy

United States Signal Corps; the Signal Corps or the signal corps

The terms “army” and “navy” when used
alone are considered to be generic, whereas, for example, the “Army Corps of Engineers”
(or “Corps of Engineers”) and the “Marine Corps”
are more specialized by virtue of being unique subbranches within the US armed forces. “Coast Guard”
and “Signal Corps,” on the same principle, are often capitalized, but any of these
may be lowercased if used alone. “Corps” becomes generic when used by itself.
(All these terms are routinely capitalized in the military’s own documentation—a
matter of institutional pride.)

Q. I am having a discussion/argument with my author’s editor over the presentation of Pizza and its Variations: Beyond Two Pi R, the title [changed for this forum] of a forthcoming book edited by myself. The title is so presented in the UK edition, and
the American publisher is insisting that this is incorrect (or at any rate in defiance of normal convention), and “Its”
should be used, despite the fact that the lowercase version appears in the book (whose text will be the same in both editions).
Quite apart from the question of consistency, I feel that in the case of this particular title a capital ‘I’
would take the eye away from the two important words, “Pizza” and “Variations.”
Do you have a (quick, please!) view?

A. Correct headline-style capitalization as defined by The Chicago Manual of Style would call for capital “Its.” All nouns—pronouns included—get
capitalized according to our rule (see paragraph 8.157). And while we are flattered that the American publisher is following
our guidelines to a tee, you do have a point. An opposite problem was encountered many years ago with our own publication
of the novel A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean. According to our rules, “through,” a preposition, would not
get a capital “t” in titles. Somebody here objected to this (on the grounds of
emphasis and prominence), so we capitalized it on the cover and in promotional materials.

Nonetheless, those who write about Maclean’s book—or list it in their documentation—should
submit to their editors. We’d write A River Runs through It. And we’d capitalize your Its.

Q. When referring to a specific conference, would the word “conference” be capitalized
when used alone? For example, “I attended the Western Region Writing Style Conference earlier this year.
During the Conference I learned . . .”

Q. People Seem to Have Capitalitis These Days. I am editing our company directory and wondering if all titles must be capitalized.
My column headings include “Name” and “Title.”
Under “Name,” I have Joe Smith. Under “Title,”
which is correct: “Customer Service” or “customer service”?

A. You may be happy to know that the University of Chicago Press considers almost all titles to be generic unless they are used
as part of a name. Practically no one gets special treatment—neither the pope nor the president of the
United States. But the recommendations in The Chicago Manual of Style apply for the most part to descriptive and analytical texts. Excess capitalization hinders an argument’s
clarity.

We’d allow an exception for something like your directory, where corporate politics might be a factor:

In promotional or ceremonial contexts such as a displayed list of donors in the front matter of a book or a list of corporate
officers in an annual report, titles are usually capitalized even when following a personal name. Exceptions may also be called
for in other contexts for reasons of courtesy or diplomacy. (8.19)

So though we at the press share your disdain for capitalization, please consider the exceptions and decide where your directory
fits.

A. In the sixteenth edition of CMOS, we make a distinction between the Cold War (i.e., between the United States and the former Soviet Union) and any old cold
war (e.g., between feuding families). See 8.74.